Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Scenic Drive To Town Brought To You By FEMA

As I drive to town (I sound so rural), I pass something that you probably did not know existed and even if you had heard about it, it is something you have to see to believe. The educator that The Park Wife is, I felt today was the day that you were to be enlightened.

Is this a town where snow birds congregate to play bridge and have square dances? Nope.

A village of like-minded gypsies? Nope

This is what is referred to as a staging ground. Ooooh, I love a stage! Even though I would have been hard pressed to come up with a talent for Miss America. I thought about flaming batons, but after the one singed eyebrow episode and the fact that lighting them would be tricky for me (I would be a horrible arsonist) I rethought my Miss America aspirations.

Anyway, back to the lesson at hand (I get a little off track at times). These are travel trailers and mobile homes that are provided to victims of natural disaster for short term use while they make repairs to their damaged homes or find alternate housing.

There are over 10,000 units being housed on one closed runway and one temporarily suspended runway at our local airport. They really should have let this pilot know that he was going to have to land on a sea of tin cans.

FEMA, i.e. your tax dollars, is paying $30,000 a month, yes a month, for 231 acres (according to the main newspaper in the state) to house the homes here. I sure wish I had a big pasture I could have rented.

Now, I am from the South and know many people who live in modular homes, so don't go and get defensive, I am not knocking the trailer homes themselves, I am just sharing a sight that has to be seen to believe.

However, I am not sure moving these to a tornado ravaged area is the best idea. Seems like asking for a repeat performance. There is data that shows that mobile homes are more vulnerable to tornadoes because they are not securely attached to the earth.

A reassuring point is that if tornadoes are spotted in our area, I will feel a bit safer knowing that it will head toward the airport, aka a tornado magnet, than toward my house.

See the arrow, I pray this is something that never has to be used and that I am not ever a guest here, it is definitely not The Ritz. It is a mobile mortuary. Oh my scenic drive.

I understand the need to be prepared, it just looks a bit wasteful.

Well, to lighten the mood and finish strong here, watch this video of one of my idols, Julia Sugarbaker.

9 comments:

You have made this Georgia Girl's day! We are required to memorize that monologue in Civics class and it still gives me chills :) And I love the gov't providing trailers for tornado victims down the middle of tornado alley! US Gov't scores again!

I'm always scared to take picutures when I drive by there! I'm afraid I'll get taken out..haha! We were working with a guy who was bidding on buying all the trailers, we were going to insure them all once be bought them but it didn't work out for him...but they did sell them to Warren Buffett for like 20 something million so you'll start seeing them dissappear soon!

Not sure how I happened onto The Park Wife, but I'm glad I did! Delightful! And I too adored Julia Sugarbaker (and was saddened by the much too early death of Dixie Carter). This clip is one of my favorite scenes. Now I'm in the mood to go into the kitchen and whip up a mess of Something Southern!